Media Releases

Media Releases

Media Releases

Melbourne will showcase its sustainability credentials to
experts worldwide when the prestigious Ecocity World Summit comes to the city
in 2017.

Around 1,000 leading international urban planners, architects
and environmental specialists will gather in Melbourne to discuss world-leading
sustainable city initiatives.

“Melbourne has excellent eco-city credentials, with many
positive changes over recent years, such as investment in new technology that
is improving the city’s sustainability and which we can profile at the Summit,”
said Karen Bolinger, Chief Executive Officer of the Melbourne Convention
Bureau.

“In the quarter of a century since Australia last hosted the
Summit there have been many improvements that have boosted our credibility as a
world centre for excellence in urban sustainability.”

In 1992, the Southbank promenade, which paved the way for
urban renewal along the Yarra, was only recently opened, the creation of
pedestrian friendly Swanston Walk was underway, and the City of Melbourne
launched its Postcode 3000 policy to attract residents to the city centre.

Chair of the City of Melbourne’s Environment Portfolio, Cr
Arron Wood, said the City of Melbourne’s goal is to become an eco-city that
prospers within its ecological limits.

“The City of Melbourne is internationally recognised for its
leadership in sustainability and is taking real action on climate change. We
have an ambitious target to achieve zero net emissions for our municipality by
2020, and we are working with the community to transition towards a low carbon
future.

Professor Brendan Gleeson, Director of the Melbourne
Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI), said: “It’s a great honour to host the
conference, which we hope will showcase Melbourne as a centre of critical and
constructive thought about urban challenges.

“Melbourne is a marvellously liveable city but it’s also
facing grave sustainability threats. It’s a test bed for ideas and actions in
an urban age threatened by climate change and resource depletion.”

Kirstin Miller, Executive Director of the US-based Ecocity
Builders (ECB) said: "Melbourne’s winning bid for the 2017 Summit was
outstanding. For one, they are setting out to strongly integrate economics,
politics and culture into the debate and context shaped by ecology.”

The Ecocity World Summit is an initiative of ECB, a
non-profit organisation that provides education for ecological design. It
develops policy, design and educational tools and strategies to build urban
centres based on access by proximity and to reverse patterns of sprawl and
excessive consumption.

The Summit will be held in July 2017 at the Melbourne
Convention and Exhibition Centre and will make an anticipated $3 million
contribution to the State’s economy.

The announcement of Melbourne as the 2017 host was made today
at the 2015 biennial World Summit being held in Abu Dhabi, with ECB President Steven
Bercu ‘passing the baton’ to Melbourne.

This will be only the second time that the Summit has been
held in Australia.

The MSSI at the
University of Melbourne and the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the
University of Western Sydney are the two local champions of the Summit.

The MSSI facilitates
and enables research linkages and projects leading to increased understanding
of sustainability and resilience trends, challenges and solutions. The ICS
researches transformations in culture and society in the context of
contemporary global change.